Resurrection Parade

Early Easter morning we got all of our kids from the mission and went for a Resurrection parade.  The kids had made banners and took instruments and we marched up the hill behind the mission making a lot of noise in the name of the Lord.

Jacy Klaire making sure Nakisha did not get left behind

After the parade we made our way back to the mission for a worship service and teaching time.  We are so blessed by the kids God has sent our way for the mission.  We have 19 kids now and each one is a special blessing from God.  There are 10 boys and 9 girls.  They include true orphans, abandoned children, and handicapped children.  Each one has a story of how man and sin corrupt and destroy.  We have kids whose parents were murdered by voodoo.  Kids whose parents died of preventable disease.  Kids whose parents abandoned them because of poverty and injustice.  It makes it hard to remember at times that God is truly sovereign and in total control.  We tend to wonder where God is when evil seems to be able to run so rampant.  But then we remember that God has told us in the Bible that injustice and corruption and hardship are repercussions of living in a fallen world.  We are doing a study with our staff and it reminds us that God chose to give man a choice of sin or righteous obedience.  The choice of sin leads to destruction and there are always innocent bystanders...like our little Nakisha, or Jeffnika, or any of the other angels in our home.  It does not take away from the fact that God is completely loving, and completely good, and completely powerful.  He has a perfect plan for each of our lives and if we choose to follow Him and seek Him we can find and live out that plan.  When that happens, we find peace even in difficult times.  We find joy even when happiness evades us.  It allows us to see that God really does have a good plan even for these kids that qualify as the "least of these".  On Resurrection Sunday, we are reminded that the Cross is the key to that understanding.  Only through Jesus can we really begin to see the world the way God does.  Without Jesus coming and dying for us, we could never see the world the way God does and have a desire to see God glorified even in the darkest of circumstances.

The Girls

Michelet and his New Wheels

The Boys

Craft Time

Our Kids in Craft Time

When things get discouraging, God seems to always come through with a source of encouragement and insight.  We have spent 3 months trying to get things together to go to the Dominican Republic for a time of seeking sources for supplies, resting, and partnering with a Dominican mission to do eye exams at an orphanage and street mission.  We had everything packed to leave Monday and the papers did not come through.  We spent the day getting more paperwork done and planned to leave today.  Then the papers were rejected because one of the notaries did not stamp it right.  So we had to get Justice's biological father and Dago together to go back to Port au Prince to redo the paper work.  Now we are waiting to see if we get to leave tomorrow.  But when things get frustrating we have to remember that the life of a Christian is a life of death to self and all rights and expectations.  We have to remember that God has graciously chosen us to be a part of that 'good' plan for each of these little ones, and for that we are truly grateful.

Meals on Wheels Haiti Style

When we moved to Haiti in 2009 we believed that God was calling us to live by a different model of ministry.  We truly believed that God has a deep love for His Haitian children and a plan to lift them out of their despair and into lives of freedom through knowledge of His love.  We believed that if God has a plan to do work then He Himself had the means to fund that work.  We believed that if we would be faithful to throw ourselves completely into finding what God wanted to do and then spent our time in that, then He would send the money to do it.  I did not want to spend several months each year doing fund raising when instead we could be rescueing babies and taking care of the sick and dying.  I was totally unsure how it would all work out but truly believed God would provide the funds. 

In July 2010 the river in Montrouis flooded due to many factors including a poorly designed bridge and extensive deforrestation.  The flood washed away many homes in our fishing village leaving dozens of single moms and their kids homeless.  Tents were provided but that was almost a year ago and the tents have been destroyed.  We felt God wanted us to reach out to these desperate women and give them hope.We had a friend that agreed to help us rent homes for 18 of the women.  But we did not want to stop there.  Paying for someone's house as a handout is more detrimental in the long run than helpful.  So instead we decided to start a program for these women to reach out to their own community. 

Joy has a heart for the elderly and widows and we were already taking fish to many widows in our area on a weekly basis.  But Joy had a desire to start a "Meals on Wheels" Haiti style- the food will all be delivered by foot but Meals on Foot did not sound as good.  So we are now taking the 18 single moms that are the outcasts from their society.  Many have multiple children from multiple men.  All are uneducated and fundamentally illiterate.  Most have been raped and abused.  We want to help them become active participants in changing their community and their lives.  We want them to know that God has a better plan for them and that although they have never believed it, they are valuable and lovable and loved.In order to be in our housing program the women had to agree to several conditions.  First of all they have to come to weekly Life Lesson classes.  These classes involve life skills training like hygeine and mothering skills.  It also involves Bible study that teaches them abstinance and the true value of their body and their lives.  In addition to the classes the women agree to work in our feeding program.  They will come three days per week to prepare and deliver the hot meals to the elderly shut-ins.  They will also be taking clean water and vitamins.  We are training them to look for signs of illness and to spend time with the client.  Our goal is to help them understand the principle of investing their lives in others.The first two days they work each week will go towards paying for their house we rented.  The third day they will get paid and taught how to mange the money. 

The program will feed about 150 hot meals per week and employ the 18 single moms.  We pray that in the long run the effects will change many families and help many to come to know the love of Christ.  I did not know how we would pay to fund the program but we went ahead and started renting all the houses.  This past week a man we met while here in Haiti called and said he and his wife really wanted to find a program they could get involved with.  I emailed him the outline of Meals on Wheels and he called me tonight and said they had all the expenses covered and would start sending a check every month to cover all the costs.  God had a plan.  He chose by grace to reveal it to us.  We started it by faith.  And He provided the funding.  In the words of Hannible from The A Team, "I just love it when a plan comes together!"